Hurricane Sandy has been an unwelcome
reminder for many Vermonters who suffered during Tropical Storm Irene. Those affected by Irene spent this weekend getting ready
for another dangerous storm - even as
they continued to recover from the previous one.

Fourteen months after Irene tore
through Vermont, driving rivers over their banks and exacting a painful
price from thousands of Vermonters, many
residents who are still waiting for FEMA insurance checks say they're
frustrated but they're ready - ready to evacuate if necessary, ready to help each other, ready
to do things differently this time.

Gaffney goes over her evacuation plan as she sits
at her kitchen table, which is covered with Irene-related paperwork. She says she'll elevate her belongings and go to
her sister's house in Montpelier, where she'll wait out
the storm that ironically shares her name.

Gaffney is approaching this
storm with a certain sense of fatalism.

"I've got so much emotion attached to the Irene
flood that I don't have any left over for this," she says, choking up. "I'm
just at the point where I'm nervous and I've made my plans but whatever
happens, happens and there's nothing I can do about it."

Across town, Chris Covey directs his tree-removal
crew. He says Irene was good for business. "Irene was busy," he says. "This storm that's
coming in, who knows?"

Covey's crew is still cleaning up the remnants from
Irene. His business has been so busy that he was able to buy this new, massive $100,000
crane. He maneuvers it to take down an American Elm: "Well there she goes! Beautiful. Perfect."

Utility crews across
the state staged their emergency response early - ordering extra poles and
cables, double checking generators.

Pam Jones is the
central office supervisor with FairPoint Communications in Vermont. She says, in light of Irene, the utility has made
extraordinary precautions ahead of Sandy.

"The prediction, I
believe, for Irene was not as intense as it turned out to be, so we do not take
it lightly," Jones says. "The issues that we had in Rochester where we lost entire offices - we've actually bought
some off-road vehicles that will allow us to get to places in the event that
roads are washed out."

Rochester and 12 other towns were cut from the rest of the
state in Irene's wake. Jones says as long
as cables don't come down, the utility's generators should keep communication
humming along.

As Vermont and other New England states brace for Sandy, state officials
say the storm is unlikely to produce Irene's devastating flooding. But
at the same time, they're urging residents to be prepared for the
worst.